I have to be honest with you: This isn't really archaic art. It's just some random stuff I started to draw one day, in the middle of a boring class. It's only that. And then again it's more than that. At first I started doing quick sketches of my teacher or the guys sitting next to me. And after doing this for almost a year I got better at it. I improved. They say practice will often cause that... a certain improvement. If that's the case, I'll continue holding pens and nibs.

August 27, 2012

Saga of the Swamp Thing # 25, 26 & 27 - Moore, Bissette & Totleben

Stephen R. Bissette & John Totleben

Too often we overlook how extraordinary some of DC’s characters could be. In order for us to surmise the formidable features of someone like Jason Blood, we must first understand him as a human. Because demons cannot exist in a world deprived of humanity, like symbiotic creatures, without human souls the devil would die of starvation. Jason Blood has been portrayed before as a mere man who dabbles with occultism, but here he’s so much more. Alan Moore gives us a glimpse of Blood’s attitude and that’s more than enough to fear him almost as much as we would fear a demon such as Etrigan -Blood’s alter ego.Abigail has just started working in an institution specialized in autistic children. She’s excited about her new job, she longs for at least a resemblance of her old, normal life. And then Blood appears and she knows that for her normality has forever been forfeit.“The Sleep of Reason” (June 1984) is a beautifully crafted tale that encompasses a rich and complex cast of characters; in its polyphonic approach lies its greatest narrative strength. We have Jason Blood admiring Goya’s famous painting and remembering how he met the artist centuries ago, we have Abby and her compassion towards children, we have Paul, the autistic child that dreams of the Monkey King, a white creature of fear, we have Matt Cable, Abby’s unapologetically alcoholic husband and, of course, we have Alec Holland too.“Yes, for every child, rich or poor… there’s a time of running through a dark place; and there’s no word for a child’s fear”; in “A Time of Running” (July 1984) Alan Moore quotes “Night of the Hunter” by James Agee, and we understand that, indeed, infantile fears are unnamed; they’re dark things that can barely be comprehended.As we had seen before, Paul had witnessed the arrival of the Monkey King, a creature capable of awakening people’s deepest fears, and so long as fear prevails, this nightmarish monster will become stronger. When a naked teenager named Vince attacks Abby, she understands that something wrong is going on in Elysium Lawns. As Abigail concludes: “I used to think I knew from fear… I didn’t. All I knew were the suburbs of fear… and now here I am, in the big city”.

The Sleep of Reason / El sueño de la razón

Matt Cable

“By Demons Driven” (August 1984) takes us right into the heart of the conflict, as both the Swamp Thing and the Demon Etrigan battle against the Monkey King. The devil’s herald is no match against a monster that is nurtured by fear, and the Swamp Thing, although immune to the powers of the white beast, can’t do anything to deter him. In the end, only Paul’s childish innocence can defeat the Monkey King. In every page, we have Moore’s poetry. He’s a master of both, content and style. His complex vocabulary complements the rhythm of his phrases; his unusual synecdoches and his incredibly creative metaphors, add meaning and depth to an already fascinating saga. Therefore, only a creative team as talented as the one formed by Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben could do any justice to Moore’s script. Their technique is akin to Francisco de Goya’s style and other Romanticism artists as well. Whenever the characters run for their lives, we have a ragged surface, without smooth finishes, and at the same time we also have exquisitely painted details. Tatjana Wood’s coloring also helps Bissette and Totleben, the red in the victims’ blood is like a dark alizarin crimson smeared on thick inks, it looks crusty and scratchy, just like real blood would. With a few gestures of the brush, Totleben transforms Bissette’s pencils into the most sublime expression of art. Time and time again, both artists provide us with moments of unassuageable pathos.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

About Me

Comic books are my passion. They are as precious to me as the oxygen I breathe, and perhaps even more. The 9th art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And through the years, this passion kept on increasing, thus turning me into an active participant. I started as a reader and later on I became a full-fledged writer and artist. Indeed I’ve found the perfect way to have twice as much pleasure when it comes to comics: I can either read them or write and draw them. And I absolutely love doing both!